By John Moore
Sept. 25, 2012
Germinal-Stage Denver is mourning the death of actor David Kristin, who was also one of the early members of the Denver Center Theatre Company.
Kristin died March 31 in Massachusetts after a long bout with cancer, but word of his death has only recently reached Germinal founder Ed Baierlein, who employed Kristin back when his company maintained an ongoing company of actors. “He performed in just about every play we did from 1979 to 1982,” Baierlien said.
Kristin, who was 62 and a native of Boston, was under contract with the DCTC for one season, Baierlein said. He also starred in “The Well of the Saints,” “In the Boom Boom Room,” “Inadmissible Evidence,” “Candida,” “Moon for the Misbegotten” and more than a dozen other plays at Germinal, located on 44th Avenue just east of Federal Boulevard in northwest Denver. He was the first actor to ever play Stanley in a Germinal staging of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
“He was just the nicest guy,” said Baierlein, who is himself preparing for hip-replacement surgery on Nov. 1. “He was a fun guy to be around and a good guy to work with.”
Kristin once appeared on the Bruce Willis TV series “Moonlighting,” but Baierlein said his sip of (uncredited) big-screen glory came as the young punk rocker who offers his jacket to a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Terminator.”
David Kristin, a lifelong poet, avid theatergoer, photographer and passionate lover of music, was also an actor who was known for his unique, humorous, and powerful roles on local stage, national screen – and in life. Whether he was intensely delivering his poetry at the Winthrop Public Library, directing/acting in productions like “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” at the Winthrop Playmakers or silently surrendering his punk-rock jacket over to a nude Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Terminator,” David radiated with a fullness of character, a raw sense of humor and an emotional honesty that was admired and cherished by everybody who knew and loved him. From Brooklyn to Denver to L.A. to Boston, he carried himself with the gentle swagger of an accomplished eccentric and the warmth of a sensitive extrovert with a penchant for stopping to read a poem he knew by heart to a stranger. Above all, he was a compassionate and loving father.
David is survived by his mother, Bea Krivulin of Brooklyn, NY, his three children, Wil, Jesse, and Sarah, their mother, Virginia Land, and his partner Kathy. He is peacefully buried at New Montefiore Cemetery on Long Island, N.Y. Friends and acquaintances are encouraged to send any stories or anecdotes by email to jeskris@gmail.com
